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It was a pretty nice day for baling.  Although we had some light rain last night, by noon things were drying up nicely.  After lunch I did some raking, hoping to speed the drying process for the straw.  After a couple of hours, Austin got to sit in the driver’s seat while did some baling.  He looked a little anxious as he had never done this type of work before.  He’s a townie and darn proud of it.  Secretly, I think he likes doing the farm thing when nothing goes wrong.

Austin raking straw with the Farmall H

Austin raked about 15 acres of straw.  It was a big help.

Or is it?

After baling for Farmer Mike on some rented land he controls, it was time to do a little baling here on this farm. We have about 3 straw bales remaining for the goats and then we’re out… completely.  The straw we have been using for bedding has been from the stockpile we set aside 2 years ago (2008).  It’s a wonder it’s lasted this long.

A few days ago, Farmer Mike offered his John Deere, small square baler for us to use.  Well, I thought we should take him up on his kind offer.  We have approx. 300+ bales to bale and rain has been in the forecast for days now.  Normally, I would use the the neighbor’s JD 24T baler, but with time being a luxury we did not have, I needed to get our season straw baling done ASAP.

After driving the tractor to Mike’s, I hooked up to his baler, with hay basket behind that.  The drive, on a tractor, takes some time.  All the while I was thinking I should just use the neighbor’s baler… it would have be quicker.  Well, well, well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Mike’s baler is a little bigger than the neighbor’s and has more teeth on the pickup.  I was able to bale in 2nd gear, with no problems.  Before picking the baler up I had raked 2 windrows straw into one larger on.  Needless to say. I was glad I went the extra mile for this more modern baler.  And with the hay basket catching the bales as I bale, was a true time saver.  This device is wonderful.  One can easily bale about 70-75 bales and haul them with you.  There is no going back to get the bales, putting them on rack and bringing them back to the place.

Here I am using a bale basket while baling our wheat straw.

The first day, we had nearly all the straw bales baled.  Not put away, but baled.  The bales we did get put away, Madison helped with.  The next day, we put most of the baled oats straw in the loft. When Carol was busy with Chas, Madison would be in the loft, helping me pile bales until I could get in the loft to stack them.  We had a few issues with the bale conveyor,  but after some minor repairs, we were back in business.  Later, I went out to the field and made a few rounds in the wheat field for 70-80 bales of wheat straw.  It was smooth going. I really liked Mike’s baler.  Gotta get me one of those.

As I was finishing up with the baling of the wheat straw, it started to drizzle.  No biggy, I was headed home anyway.  Oh crap! We need to put this stuff away.  After pulling into the yard, I helped Carol stack the rest of the load of oat straw (on the ground) into the barn.  When we got done with those bales, we still had the hay basket still full of bales.  I was quick to drop the load off near the barn – that’s when the work really started. Austin (just back from work), Carol and myself high-tailed the wheat straw into the barn.  We already had some straw in the loft, but we like putting bales along the outer walls of the barn.  By doing this it helps hold the heat of the animals during the cold winter months.  It makes a huge difference.

The last couple of days reminded me of when I was growing up, helping my dad and grandpa do the baling, in the 1970′s.  It seemed we always baled straw on some of the hottest, most miserably days of the year.  It was just the way it was done back then I guess.  Today, we started the day with temps in the 90′s°F with high humidity.  Later in the day, Carol mentioned to me that our weather station alarm went off – I had it set to sound off at 95°F.

Again, using Farmer Mike’s baling equipment was a Godsend.  I’m sure grateful for his help and so glad I never p*ssed him off when was younger.  I don’t think we could be doing nearly as well as we are without his help and guidance.

The haying is done for now. This time I baled everything into small square bales for the goats (and Ruby, Madison’s mini horse) this winter. A big thanks goes to our wonderful neighbors who lets me use their old JD 24T baler whenever I need it.

I forgot to look at the bale counter to see how many bales I baled, but if I had to guess, I’d say we have approx. 300-350 in the loft now. This hay is mostly used for the nanny goats when they are in the birthing pens and for the little ones in the nurseries. If we had a skid loader I suppose round bales would be the ticket, but when you a lacking certain things for bale handling, the square bales work just fine.

For the most part I was the one to get the bales out of the field. Austin has a job, Madison doesn’t like driving the tractor on the steep hills and Carol has been busy getting her mother ready for her surgery date and then again, there is the occasional sales-barn auction. So.. when the mice are out playing, the cat (me) has to do the work when it needs to be done. This morning and early afternoon, I was able to load, unload and stack 3 hay racks of hay. Later, I was glad to have Austin & Carol helping collect the bales (when they could) and Austin & Madison doing the unloading while I stacked the hay in the loft. Haying is a real family event on this farm. The real labor saver was the the old homemade bale elevator that I pulled out of the woods. It works like a charm. I’m quite happy with it.

The next crop to command attention is the wheat. It is or is nearly ripe. It is such an attractive golden tan with the oats next to it just as golden as it could possibly be.

After the storms last night, the downed hay was too wet to rake. What to do, what to do? In the morning, I went out to the field of freshly baled hay. If I can’t rake or bale I might as well roll the bales on their side. If one rolls the bales so the twine stings are not facing the ground, the mice can’t chew on them. The bales were too damp to stack. Like the hay that was down in windrows, the bales also need to dry.

I then put the bale spear on the loader in front of the IH 560 and then hooked the 3 pt bale forks on the back. The small square bales may be too damp to put-up, but the 600lbs round bales of ditch hay were not. I was able to collect 15-20 grass/mix bales that I got baled on Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll get another cutting from the ditches this year. Typically, we get two cuttings but this year it looks like we may easily get 3. What a difference a year with rain makes.

Out of the woods on my grandparent’s old farm, AND after cutting down some trees that seemingly impale anything that sets undisturbed for too long, I was able to recover an old, homemade, 30ft, hay elevator that my dad must have purchased years before his death, in 2005. After getting it back to the farm here, Madison and I squirted every chain link with penetrating oil… then she tapped each link with a hammer to break the rust. My initial fear was that if/when I put power to the elevator the chain would break, but it didn’t. Wouldn’t you know it but the old thing ran like a charm. It’s safe to say this year we will have an elevator to use for putting hay in the hayloft. No more throwing the hay up into the loft, no, no, no…. no!

BTW: According to the data recorded on our home weather station, last night we had wind gusts topping 66mph and sustained winds of 55-58mph. The winds were so strong that it took the hood of the pickup and tossed it nearly 25 ft. east.

WOW!  What a long day -  nearly 400 miles round-trip.

My first of two stops was in NW Iowa to pick-up an old 14′ Minneapolis Moline grain drill.  Although the drill was in less than ideal condition, I felt for the money, it was still a good deal.  I believe I can use an old drill that is in our grove for parts… so, I’m hoping for a few $$$ I can have a grain drill to use on the farm for planting oats, wheat and pasture/hay ground.

My 2nd stop was SW Minnesota near the town of Ruthton.  A gentleman had contacted me on one of my ads for a small acreage crop sprayer.   After meeting him, he explained to me the history of the sprayer and how his family used it.  We got it loaded on the trailer behind the drill.  After tying it down, he also gave me a bucket of filters, screens and sprayer tips.  Again, this piece of equipment is not in ‘like-new’ condition.  It needs hoses, brackets and over-all TLC, but for $150, we both agreed it was a win-win business deal for each of us.  Best of all, this small sprayer can easily be pulled by a Farmall H.

I plan to use the sprayer for spraying a milk-water solution on some of the fields and pastures/paddocks of the farm.  Studies have shown that spraying this type of solution on fields, with low fertility, does wonders for grass type plants (i.e. oats, wheat, pasture, etc…).  One of a few articles can be found on Facebook’s ‘Small Farm & Sustainability Group.’  The study was conducted by Nebraska extension agent Terry Gompert and dairyman David Wetzel and is referred to as the The Raw Milk Strategy.  So what’s going on?  Gompert and Wetzel are both convinced what they have here is microbial action. “When raw milk is applied to land that has been abused, it feeds what is left of the microbes, plus it introduces microbes to the soil,” Wetzel explained.  It repels some insects

We plan on using a solution of 3 gal raw milk to 17 gal water per acre.  According to Gompert and Wetzel, there no difference between using 3, 5 10 or 20 gals of milk per acre.  At this time, milk is cheap and even if paying a neighbor twice the market price of fresh milk, it is way less expensive than conventional chemical fertilizers.  Since our farm is in transition to becoming Certified Organic this raw milk strategy is a perfect fit us.

I got the 20 acres of corn ground worked with the digger so it would be ready for me to plant, later in the afternoon.  I then went over to Farmer Mike’s place to pick up my seed (he has a shed and was storing the seed for me).

The wind was blowing pretty good and in the open field it felt kinda cool.  Last year I planted corn with the IH 560, this year I would try it with the Oliver (it has a cab).  Once in the field, I made a couple adjustments to the planter and figured I had it planting seed at the right depth.  After a few rounds, the planter’s drive chain started to slip on the gears.  Time to go back to the yard to make an adjustment.  I got that done and headed back to the field.  This time, everything seemed to working perfectly… my rows were straight and looking good.  Then all of a sudden, a loud clanking sound came from the underside of the tractor.  I quick pushed in the clutch and the sound ceased.  I slowly let the clutch out… and nothing – the tractor wouldn’t move.  I then tried the other gears… still nothing.  I noticed that I wasn’t able to shift into 1st or 3rd gear…  that was odd.  What was even more odd is that I was able to shift into the gears without engaging the clutch.  THIS CANNOT BE GOOD!  Crap, crap, crap!!!  I got [maybe] 25% of the field planted.

The tractor will need to sit in the middle of the field overnight, until I have some help to get it pulled back to the farm.  The stinker of it is that I just bought the tractor last fall.  Money well spent?  It doesn’t look like it.  I really need this tractor.

With Earth Day due the following day, we experienced ‘green’ today.

Carol came in the house after haying some of the critters in the morning.  She was pretty proud about something.  She asked a couple basic questions about hay… then showed me a $2 bill.  She found it baled into the hay bale.  Who says producing your own hay doesn’t pay?

Another sign of green -  as I was walking the pasture’s fence lines, keeping an eye on the growth of our pasture grasses, I noticed that our wheat has germinated.  Looking across the paddock fence, I could see a slight hue of green in the field that Farmer Mike planted for us last week.  It was exciting to see.  Even though this is our second year of farming I can still appreciate the new growth of the spring growing season.

Our alfalfa/grass field, across the creek, is growing well too.  Today, I decide to get the remaining [last year's] round bales from the edges of the fields, before the new hay growth gets too high.  I wanted to test the farm’s “new” loader to see if it could lift a round bale or not.  I borrowed a bale spear, hooked it to the loader and headed out.  With high hopes, I speared the first bale.  I pulled back the loader control lever and tah-dah… the loader lifted the bale.  I was then able to load bales onto a hay-rack and in no time, I had nearly 20 bales in from the fields and stacked nicely near the barn.  In the time it would normally take to bring 4-5 bales back to the farm I was able to haul them all.  I can see the savings of time and fuel already.  Happy Earth Day to me!  I guess it’s time for me to talk with Farmer Mike about buying one of his custom-made bale spears.  I know I will be able to put it to good use.

On a minor note – I put in a couple posts near the barn yard.  With the pastures growing and looking better every day, I decided to work on a new lane for the goats and sheep.  We have a small, 2 acre paddock that they will need to get to in the next week or so… and as of today, there is no way for the animals to get to it.  The posts I installed will be part of a gate system for the corner of the paddock… and part of the short lane leading to it.

After helping Farmer Mike with some spring plowing on his newly rented land on Monday, he came over to help me with mine.  We worked the fields on this farm for a little while Mon. night, but finished on Tuesday.  It was fun to be doing the field-work in tandem like we did.  For a few hours we [kinda] felt like bigshots.  Total, we had 10 bottoms in the ground.  In just 2 short working days, we had approx. 70 acres of crop land worked.  It was fun.

As a new farmer I was worried about this spring plowing thing.  I had once heard, “Poor fall plowing is better than good spring plowing.“  I don’t remember who said it, but it was an old timer I talked to at the farmers elevator last fall.  Since then, I’ve worried about my spring plowing project… I think Mike was worried about his as well.  Mike, as with most experienced farmers, has some real horror stories associated with spring plowing.  In normal soil, spring plowing can cause clumping.  Instead of breaking apart over winter, these chunks of dirt seem to get harder and harder.  Crops usually fail.  The soil on this farm (and the land that Farmer Mike is renting) is concidered sandy-loam.  It really doesn’t clump up, due to the lighter, well drained composition of the soil.  Anyway, after we got done with the field work, the spring plowed soil looked very much like the dirt that was worked last fall.  Mike ran across his acreage with a disc… I’m going to leave ours until we’re ready to plant.  I’ll then work it with a digger (or field cultivator), just before planting.  Now we need rain.

I nearly forgot.  After plowing on Monday night Mike’s son informed me that he had talked with someone who said our cattle were out of the fence.  Crap, crap, crap!  I took off up the road looking for the rascals.  The girls (Madison & Carol) jumped in the car and headed east of the place.  They called me saying they found a heifer and Donkey.  That means we are missing 8 head.  I drove around the fields and the girls checked the roadways.  Heading back to the farm, I found them in our alfalfa field.  Needless to say, I’m glad I had the BB gun.  With Carol and Madison’s help, we got the cattle into one of last year’s paddocks.  From there, we chased them accross the creek and into another paddock.  After driving home, I headed out on foot.  With my trusty Red Ryder BB gun in hand, I drove the cattle from paddock to paddock ontil they were penned east of the farm.  I closed the gate and called it a night.  Tomorrow I’ll get them a bail of hay.  It turns out the fencer was grounding out in the goat pen… there was absolutely no spark where the cattle got out.  It’s fixed now!

The air was chilly, but I decided to start a fencing project anyway.  I went out to the south east corner of the property to look at the old line fencing.  It had been there been there forever.  For the most part, the posts are still there, but the old barbed-wire is partially gone or broken.  Because I need to tear-down the fence north of the creek to make way for the new pasture projects, I thought I would reuse that for this SE line fencing.  Reduce, reuse and recycle right? I easily and quickly was able to tear out the top-wire of the one fence, which seems to be high-tensile barbed.  Once rolled, I put it on the ATV and I hauled the wire back to the place… then out to the SE field.  To be honest, that was all I was in the mood to do.  Out in the wind, the temp was a little more chilly than I cared to be in.  Maybe tomorrow, I’ll find myself out there again.

After returning back to the farm site, I decided to work on one of the farm’s tractors.  I knew it needed work because last winter when I was plowing, I had antifreeze/coolant spraying on the windshield of the cab… the thought had been bothering me all winter.  I first thing i did was to fill the radiator with fluid to see if I could locate the leak.  Sure enough coolant came dripping out.  I added some ‘Stop-Leak’ type stuff but I think the hole was too large for the cheap fix to work.  It looks like I’ll have to remove the radiator and have it professionally repaired. I’m guessing that’ll be $100-200+ I’ll never see again.  The thing is, I really need the tractor to be in good operating condition for field work, once the ground dries out.  It’s got to be ready.  Because of the late harvest and the limited time we had for fall tillage, much of the work was left for this spring. Without the ‘big’ tractor, I’m screwed.  I have 40 acres of corn ground that needs to be worked.  I guess the radiator repair bill, whatever it may be, will be cheaper than renting a tractor.

Last night, Carol started to make what she called ‘Farm House Cheddar‘ cheese. Made from some of the farm’s excess goat milk, Carol took a ‘use it or loose it‘ approach to recent cheese making. If we don’t make something out of the milk we will be throwing it out (or feeding it to the pig, poultry or cats). With aspirations of becoming real cheese makers, we thought it best to experiment with some simple cheddar cheese recipes with the milk we’ve been blessed with… Especially since we have some folks interested in our cheese… should we make a few batches.  Madison’s raw-milk science fair project helped get the work out.

Some fresh 'Farmhouse Cheddar' cheese

We left the cheese in the cheese mould, under 48lbs of weight (6 one gallon jugs filled with tap water).  It needs to be there for approx. 12 hrs.  After that, it will need to be exposed to the open air so that it develops a rine.  Then we will seal it (either in cheese wax or a vacuum sealed ‘seal-a-meal’ package).  It will then be aged.

I got lucky.  When I went to remove the radiator of the tractor (the next morning), there was still coolant in the system.  OK.  I then started the tractor to see if it would leak with system pressurized.  To my delight, it didn’t leak.  The next test was to hook-up the disk and see if the radiator will spring a leak with the engine at operating temp.  After 10-15 minutes of discing, everything was still dry – no leaks, no spills, no nothin.  I’m going to leave it for now… hopefully, it will remain ‘repaired’ for spring tillage.